Lindy Davies

Lindy Davies (29 August 1946, Melbourne, Victoria) has worked as a Director, Actress, Actor Trainer and Performance Consultant, winning awards and nominations for performance, direction and inspirational leadership.^[1]

Davies has been an influence on many actors, including Cate Blanchett,^[2][3][4][5] Dame Harriet Walter,^[6][7][8][9] and Julie Christie.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Intuition is the defining principle of her process.^[13][14][15]

Davies has worked as a Performance Consultant in film in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne. She has conducted master classes for actors, writers and directors at the Canadian Film Centre from 2010 - 2016.^[16]

Davies was awarded a two year Theatre Board Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts, to write a book on her Intuitive Approach to Performance for the Autonomous Actor.

Davies collaborated with Julie Christie on Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep and Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood, Stephen Poliakoff’s Glorious '39 and Sarah Polley’s Away From Her, for which Julie won a National Board of Review Award, a Critics’ Circle Award, a Screen Actor's Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Julie Christie was also nominated for an Academy Award for this performance.

Career

As Director

• National Theatre of Slovenia: Scenes From an Execution
• National Theatre of Slovenia: The Changeling^[17]
• Moscow Maly Theatre, Old Times.
• Wyndham's Theatre West End, Old Times (with Julie Christie, Leigh Lawson and Harriet Walter).^[7][10][18]
• Theatr Clywd, Old Times (with Julie Christie and Leigh Lawson)^[7][9][10]
• Chichester Festival Theatre, Hedda Gabler (with Harriet Walter Nicholas Le Prevost and Phyllida Law)^[8][19]
• Chichester Festival Theatre, Suzannah Andler (with Julie Christie)
• Sydney Theatre Company, Three Days of Rain, A Month in the Country (Opera House), Old Times
• Bell Shakespeare Company:, As You Like It (Opera House);
• Belvoir St Company B, Scenes from an Execution (nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director)
• State Theatre Company of South Australia, Room to Move
• Playbox, Fool for Love
• Victorian College of the Arts, The Rover, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Women Beware Women (Middleton/Barker), The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, Lysistrata.
• National Institute of Dramatic Art, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Electra; Miss Sarah Sampson.
• Pram Factory: Calling For Help
• La Mama: Calling For Help
• Open Stage: Marat Sade; Ride Across Lake Constance; The Birthday Party

Performance Consultant

Lindy Davies has developed an approach to performance: a process; which is an intuitive imaginative connection to language, space and transformation.

She has worked as a Performance Advisor/Consultant on many films including:

• Sarah Polley’s Away from Her for which Julie Christie won
  • the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress;
  • the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress;
  • the Critics' Circle Award
  • and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.
  • Julie has also been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
• Lindy also worked with Julie Christie on Neverland and Troy.
• Alan Rudolph's Afterglow; for which Julie Christie received a 1998 Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
• Sally Potter's The Tango Lesson.
• Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet with Julie Christie.
• Dennis Potter's Karaoke with Julie Christie.
• Michael Whyte's The Railway Stationman with Julie Christie.
• Pat O’Connor's Fools of Fortune with Julie Christie.
• Australia: includes Looking For Alibrandi, Radiance, The Leaving of Liverpool, Talk, MDA.
• Indivision Lab 2009 AFC Consultant alongside Christine Vachon, Susanne Bier and Claudia Karvan.
• Screen Australia 2011 Flash Black Performance Workshop for Indigenous Directors.

Actor Training

• From November 1995 to January 2007, Lindy Davies was the Head of the School of Drama at the former Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.^{[20][21][22][23][24]}
• Davies has worked extensively in film and theatre and possesses a strong philosophy in relation to the autonomous artist.
• Lindy Davies created an integrated curriculum for the training of Actors, Directors, Writers, Theatre-Makers, Designers and Technical Practitioners at the School of Drama of the former Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. The focus was upon training autonomous artists who would gain work throughout the world. Many of her graduates are now working internationally in their profession.^[25]
  • Lucy Taylor^[26][27][28]
  • Luke Mullins^{[29][30][31][32]}
  • James Brennan^[33][34]
  • Ming Zhu Hii^[35][36][37]
  • Simon Stone^{[25][38][38][39][40][41]}
  • Mark Leonard Winter^[42][43]
  • Chris Ryan^[44][45][46]
  • Patrick Brammall^[47][48]
  • Shelly Lauman^{[49][50][51][52]}
  • Eryn Jean Norvill^[53][54]
  • Alison Bell^[55][56]
• From 1979-1982 she held the position of Head of Acting at the Victorian College of Arts.
• From 1970-1978 she was a Lecturer in Drama at Melbourne State College.

Davies is presently writing a book on her Approach to Performance: The Intuitive Actor... a path to Autonomy.^[57]

Actress

• Malcolm, (AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress)
• Belvoir St Company B, Scenes from an Execution (Galactea), (nominated for a Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actress)
• N.I.D.A. Company, Vassa, (Vassa) (nominated for a Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actress)
• State Theatre Company of South Australia, The Seagull (Arkadina) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha), Wild Honey (Anna Petrovna).
• Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha), Condor Award for Best Actress.
• New Work: Lyndal Jones: Prediction Piece; Nan Hassall: Biennale Piece; Jenny Kemp: The White Hotel.
• Playbox, Upside Down at the Bottom of the World, (Frida), World is Made of Glass (Magda), Buried Child (Haley).
• Rex Cramphorn's Actor's Development Stream, Antony and Cleopatra,(Cleopatra) Britannicus (Agrippina), Hamlet (Gertrude) Not Suitable for Adults (Kate).
• La Mama, Mishka and Nomagava.(Mishka); Thoughts on Meeting A Friend; Halewyn; Tombstone.
• The Pram Factory, Marvellous Melbourne; Marvellous Melbourne II; Chicago Chicago; Don's Party.
• La Mama Experimental Theatre Company: Calm Down Mother; Comings and Goings; Birth of Space; I Don’t Know Who to Feel Sorry For; Dimboola, Halewyn.

Awards

• Malcolm, (AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress)
• Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award - A special citation for her contribution to performing arts in Australia.
• Recipient of the Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award for inspirational leadership and significant contribution to the theory and practice of drama.^[58][59]

References

External links

• Lindy Davies' website
• Lindy Davies at the Internet Movie Database
• The Old Times (1995) Wyndham"s Theatre, London Photo Gallery
• Staff profile at Victorian College of Arts